Harlequin Bouquet Birthday card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good morning. Just catching up with blogging a few more of my recent show samples created for Chocolate Baroque on Hochanda. This one was created with the Harlequin Bouquet stamp.

I experimented a bit with the Soft Form Relief Paste on this one. I tried inking the stamp before coating with the paste (using Archival Ink) with the hope to transfer the ink into the paste embellishment. I wasn’t sure if the ink would just diffuse and bleed into the paste making a smudgy mess. I was really pleased with the result – the inked image stayed clean and sharp and transferred perfectly.

Materials:

• Harlequin Bouquet and Loving Sentiments stamps
• 17.5 X 14cm black card blank plus a scrap piece for the sentiment panel
• Inkpads: Archival Ink (Jet Black), Versamark
• WOW Embossing Powder (Gold Rich)
• Soft Form Relief Paste (Gold)
• Pebeo Gilding Wax (Renaissance Gold)
• Glossy Accents
• PVA pearls (gold)
• Black ribbon
• Harlequin embossing folder

How to make it:

1. Ink the stamp with Archival Ink and spread the relief paste over the top with a palette knife. Leave to fully dry before peeling away. This will not spoil the stamp in any way and the dried paste stays flexible and is easily removed. Drying times can vary and I find that it usually takes 2 days for me (I don’t have heating). So you need to plan ahead a bit when using this but the results are worth it.
2. Emboss the card blank with the harlequin folder and rub over with a little gilding wax.
3. Stamp the sentiment with Versamark onto a separate piece of card and heat emboss with the gold powder. Note: I would advise dusting the card with antistatic powder before embossing. I usually do this but forgot in this case so got some stray embossing powder over the background. However, I thought it looked ok and made it a bit more vintage looking in this case.
4. Trim the sentiment panel and glue to the card front along with the paste embellishment. Add Glossy Accents over the flowers and leaves to make them stand out.
5. Finish with a bow and PVA pearls.